BEST SPORTS MARKETING INITIATIVE
BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions
ABB FIA Formula E is one of the most exciting sports in the world right now, offering unparalleled technological advancements and breath-taking feats on tight, street circuits at the same time as empowering a growing and diverse global fanbase. But there is more to ABB FIA Formula E than 280 km an hour – it has paired racing with environmental responsibility to become the world’s fastest growing sustainable and first net zero certified sport. ‘Change Accelerated’, a documentary-style series of short films produced by BBC StoryWorks, goes behind the scenes of season 7 of this fascinating world to bring to life the unexpected stories of people behind ABB FIA Formula E’s ambitious and trailblazing mission.
Chelsea Football Club
Since 2019, boxsets – long-form features and short films – have been an integral part Chelsea’s video strategy to grow overall video views on owned platforms and YouTube. In May 2021, Chelsea Football Club won their second Champions League. The backstory of the success made the win even more special. Thomas Tuchel, the new head coach had only been at the club for four months and was working with a squad boasting numerous academy graduates for whom this was only their second Champions League campaign ever. Following the close-season and easing of lockdown restrictions, Porto Uncovered, a two-part boxset, was identified as another premium Netflix and Amazon Prime-style boxset production. The series took fans behind the scenes on our road to European glory and featured exclusive interviews with the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Antonio Rudiger and Kai Havertz. The two-part series, shot and edited cinematically, looked back on Chelsea’s impressive advance to the Champions League final and ensuing success.
Norwich City Football Club / 1J ESports
In May 2022, Norwich City and 1J Esports (official esports team of Norwich City) hosted a charity football match at Carrow Road with some of the most well-known content creators from the world of gaming (specifically FIFA).
Following the launch of 1J Esports In October 2021, the team began with a successful first season culminating In victory In the ePremier League. The team was created to build and engage with a new audience demographic whilst bringing the two worlds of real-life football and virtual football closer together.
Building on those objectives, an Innovative activation was created to gather the most well-known Influencers, creators, and streamers from the gaming world and bring them together for a real-life football game.
The game Itself, labelled Creators at Carrow Road, was hosted at the stadium following the conclusion of the 2021/22 season and was live streamed In full via the 1J Esports Twitch account, becoming one of the first-ever charity creators game to take place at a Premier League football stadium. The event was hosted In association with two charities (Special Effect and CSF) to use the audience surrounding the players to raise money and awareness for two fantastic causes.
The British & Irish Lions
Against a backdrop of political turmoil and the third wave of a global pandemic this was a Lions Series like no other.
Ordinarily a Lions Tour captures the imagination of the sporting world but with the Sea of Red unable to travel for the 2021 series due to Covid we set ourselves a challenge, ‘how can we bring supporters closer to the squad than ever before’? We placed fan engagement at the heart of everything we did.
The answer was to produce an immersive behind-the-scenes content series, called ‘The Ultimate Test’, that captured the key moments, the highs and lows as well as all the drama of a Lions Tour, played in the most difficult of circumstances.
The Lions are synonymous with sporting documentaries with the 1997 film Living the Lions setting a new benchmark for behind-the-scenes storytelling. For the first time ever we set ourselves a challenge of replicating that in ‘real time’.
UK Sport & true digital
How do you persuade young people that you don’t have to be white, rich and privately educated to make it to the top of Olympic and Paralympic sport? That was the challenge we were set by UK Sport as part of their efforts to recruit the next generation of sporting stars. In partnership with TeamGB and ParalympicsGB, we developed FromHome2TheGames: a new brand, communications campaign and digital platform to reach, engage and recruit a new, more diverse audience of young athletes.
